Symbols
105Click a symbol to copy it and open its page.
Ligurian alphabet
Accented and long vowels sit beside their base letter so the marks line up. Æ, Ç and Ñ are letters of their own with their own sounds; J, K, W and Y appear mostly in names and borrowed words.
Ligurian punctuation
Currency and where it’s spoken
Liguria in emoji
Fugassa and fainâ, basil for pesto, Taggiasca olives and the port of Genoa.
On the map
Loading…
The Ligurian alphabet: Genoese letters at a glance
Ligurian (ligure) is a Romance language of north-western Italy, and its best-known form is Genoese, zeneize, the speech of Genoa, which Ligurians call Zena. It is written in the Latin alphabet, and modern Ligurian writing uses more than one spelling convention. Its alphabet has 29 letters, A to Z with Æ, Ç and Ñ; j, k, w and y turn up mostly in names and borrowed words, while x is a native letter with a sound of its own.
Three letters are what make a text look Ligurian at once: Æ æ, Ç ç and Ñ ñ. They sort right after a, c and n. Around them, every vowel can carry a mark: a grave or acute accent for stress and openness, and a circumflex or diaeresis for length. That is why the Ligurian alphabet on this page has so many vowel forms: à â ä, é è ê ë, ì î ï, ó ò ô ö, ù û ü.
Ligurian letters and their sounds: æ, ç, x, z, ñ and eu
Æ æ is a long open e, like the e of English bed drawn out: çittæ (city), Tæra (Earth), unitæ (unit). It is one letter, not a and e in a row, so copy the single character æ, not the two letters ae.
Ç ç is a plain s sound, written where Latin and Italian have c before e or i: çento (hundred), çittæ, Greçia (Greece), Sveçia (Sweden). X is the soft zh sound of the s in English pleasure or the French j: dexembre (December), Braxî (Brazil). Z is a voiced s, as in English zoo: Zena, zenâ (January).
Ñ ñ looks Spanish but is not the Spanish sound: in Ligurian it writes the velar ng of English sing, heard between vowels, as in Argentiña, Lisboña and settemaña (week). The ny sound of Spanish ñ is written gn, as in Italian: Spagna. Older and informal texts often write the velar sound as n- instead.
Genoese gives the plain vowels values of its own: o is pronounced like Italian u, u is the rounded ü of French tu or German über, and the pair eu is the vowel of French peu: zeuggia (Thursday), mëzaneutte (midnight). The open o of English lot is written ò: dòppo (after), Òslo.
Ligurian accents and long vowels: à é è â ä ê ë ô ö
The grave and acute accents mark stress where the default rules do not predict it, mostly on the last syllable, as in Italian: lunesdì (Monday), venardì (Friday), Perù, cafè. The acute é is a closed e: l’é (is), one of the most frequent words of the language.
Length matters in Ligurian, and the spelling shows it. A circumflex marks a long vowel in zenâ (January), frevâ (February), d’arvî (in April) and Braxî (Brazil); a diaeresis marks one in mätesdì (Tuesday), mäcordì (Wednesday), mëzogiorno (noon) and Euröpa. The standard Genoese expression for “decade” is dex’anni. So ä and ö are not the German umlauts; they are long a and long o. Capitals keep their marks: ÇITTÆ, MÄTESDÌ.
A few marked letters in the set, such as ó, ï, û and ü, are rare in everyday text, but CLDR lists them in the Ligurian main-letter set, so they are here too.
How to type Ligurian letters: æ, ç, ñ and the accents
Windows: hold Alt and type on the number pad æ 0230, Æ 0198, ç 0231, Ç 0199, ñ 0241, Ñ 0209, à 0224, â 0226, ä 0228, é 0233, è 0232, ê 0234, ë 0235, ì 0236, î 0238, ï 0239, ó 0243, ò 0242, ô 0244, ö 0246, ù 0249, û 0251, ü 0252, « 0171, » 0187. For the capitals use À 0192, Â 0194, Ä 0196, É 0201, È 0200, Ê 0202, Ë 0203, Ò 0210, Ô 0212, Ö 0214, Ù 0217. On the United States-International layout type ` then a vowel for à, ^ then a vowel for â, " then a vowel for ä, ' then c for ç, ~ then n for ñ, and AltGr Z for æ.
Mac: hold a letter and pick from the pop-up (a gives à â ä æ, c gives ç, n gives ñ), or use Option (grave), Option E (acute), Option I (circumflex) and Option U (diaeresis) followed by the vowel; Option C types ç, Option N then n types ñ, and Option ' types æ. Phones: long-press a, c, e, i, n, o or u on the keyboard.
In HTML write æ for æ, ç for ç, ñ for ñ, â for â and ä for ä. Or simply copy any letter from the grid on this page.
Where Ligurian is spoken, and Ligurian vs Italian
Ligurian is spoken in Liguria, the arc of coast around Genoa from the French border to La Spezia, and in some neighbouring valleys. CLDR estimates around 520,000 speakers, all counted in Italy . Ligurian varieties also live on outside Italy: Monégasque, the traditional language of Monaco , is taught in its schools; Bonifacio on Corsica has its own Ligurian dialect; and Carloforte and Calasetta in Sardinia speak Tabarchino, brought by Ligurians who had settled on the island of Tabarka off Tunisia.
Italian is the official language of Liguria, and in Italy Ligurian is often called a dialetto, but linguists treat it as a language of its own, grouped with Piedmontese, Lombard and Emilian among the Gallo-Italic languages. An Italian speaker reading a çittæ, dexembre or zeuggia sees quickly how different the two languages are; see our Italian Accents & Letters for comparison, French Accent Marks & Letters and Catalan Alphabet & Accents for two other Romance languages that write ç, and Italy Emoji & Symbols and Monaco Emoji for the countries.
Liguria pays in euros, and CLDR’s Ligurian data writes the sign after the number: 20,00 , with a comma for decimals.
How to use them
5 situationsClick to copyLigurian Alphabet & Letters combos
13Worth knowing
- Boca Juniors of Buenos Aires are nicknamed los Xeneizes, the Genoese, because the La Boca district was settled by immigrants from Genoa; xeneize is the Spanish spelling of zeneize.
- Fabrizio De André’s album Crêuza de mä (1984) is sung entirely in Genoese and is among the most celebrated Italian records of its decade.
- Ligurian ñ is not Spanish ñ: Argentiña is said with the ng of English sing, while the Spanish ny sound is written gn, as in Spagna.
- Ligurian has a home in three countries: Liguria in Italy, Monégasque in Monaco, Bonifacio on French Corsica, and Tabarchino in Sardinian towns founded by Ligurians who came back from Tabarka in Tunisia.
Questions people ask
8What letters are in the Ligurian alphabet?
A Æ B C Ç D E F G H I J K L M N Ñ O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z, with the marked vowels À Â Ä, É È Ê Ë, Ì Î Ï, Ó Ò Ô Ö and Ù Û Ü. J, K, W and Y appear mostly in names and borrowed words.
How do you type æ?
On Windows hold Alt and type 0230 (Æ is 0198); on a Mac press Option ' or hold a and pick æ; on the US-International layout press AltGr Z; on a phone long-press a. In HTML write æ.
What does æ sound like in Ligurian?
A long open e, like the e of English bed held longer, as in çittæ (city) and Tæra (Earth).
What does ç sound like in Ligurian?
A plain s, written where Italian has c before e or i: çento (hundred), Greçia (Greece).
Is Ligurian a language or a dialect?
Linguists class it as a Romance language of its own, a Gallo-Italic language like Piedmontese and Lombard. In Italy it is often called a dialect, because Italian is the official language.
Ligurian language vs Italian: how different are they?
Quite different in sound and spelling: Ligurian has æ, ç, x and ñ, pronounces o as u and u as French u, and marks long vowels. Compare Ligurian dexembre and zeuggia with Italian dicembre and giovedì.
Is modern Ligurian the same as ancient Ligurian?
No. The ancient language of the Ligures is known only from names and a few words; modern Ligurian descends from Latin, like Italian and French.
How many people speak Ligurian?
CLDR estimates around 520,000 speakers in Italy, mostly in Liguria. Estimates vary with how speakers are counted, and Monaco, Bonifacio and Carloforte add small communities.
